Zach Wahls

Joins us for “Housing First: A Revolutionary Approach to Ending Chronic Homelessness”! Since 2008, a revolutionary approach to ending homelessness has been sweeping America: Housing First. This method has been implemented successfully in cities across the country, and it is coming soon to the Iowa City community. Join author and advocate Zach Wahls to learn more about Housing First, and how it saves taxpayer dollars while simultaneously addressing the worst symptoms of deep poverty.

Zach Wahls, the son of a same-sex couple from Iowa, helped shape the national dialogue surrounding same-sex marriage. Zach rocketed to international prominence when a video of his testimony before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee about same-sex marriage became YouTube’s most-watched political video of 2011. Since the early 2000s, the United States of America has witnessed the swift, nearly-unprecedented advance of rights for LGBT people—Zach’s testimony told a powerful story about the importance of empathy, kindness, and the role of love and values in defining family.

Zach wrote the New York Times-bestselling book My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family, and spoke in prime time at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina—the first person to ever address a major party’s convention because of a viral YouTube video.

Zach, an Eagle Scout, went on to lead Scouts for Equality, an organization fighting the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on LGBT youth and adults. Under his leadership, Scouts for Equality helped win an end to the BSA’s long-standing ban on gay members and secured the right of transgender boys to participate in the program.

He has been featured as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen Show, The Situation Room, and Newshour. He is currently studying public policy and is a Masters candidate at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

About The Green Room:How does one community get smarter…Employ that knowledge to uplift the lives of its residents…Join with other cities and towns across the country…And collectively change the world?

If you’re interested in finding answers to these questions, join us this fall for The Green Room, a University of Iowa Honors Program course and community-wide educational experiment open to all residents of Iowa City.

Taught by David Lynn Gould, The Green Room will meet at 7 p.m. on select Monday nights in August through October at The Englert Theatre. Find your community, share your thoughts, and join us for this one-of-a-kind, multi-dimensional learning experience. This event series is FREE and open to the public.

The Division of Student Life fosters student success by creating and promoting inclusive educationally purposeful services and activities within and beyond the classroom.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa - sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the Lecture Committee in advance at 319-335-3059.